The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002 Page: 703
741 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
even though they were active participants in labor organizations and led strikes,
were portrayed as docile, lazy or ignorant in the Anglo press, were supported but
patronized in the Spanish language press, and were marginalized by their own
unions even though in situations of labor conflict they sometimes comprised a
majority of the workers on strike.
After World War II the once largely rural Mexican American population con-
tinued to grow, becoming more urbanized, more socially mobile and more com-
plex like the society around it. Manuel Pefia's original and insightful work
explores changing patterns of ethnicity and class through the lens of Texas-Mexi-
can music in the context of the shift of Tejano society from rural folk to more
multiclass and urban during the crucial phase from 1935 to 1965. For Mexican
Americans, things like the GI Bill led to home loans and greater educational op-
portunities, while service in the war and the contribution on the home front
meant increased demands for equality, which, as a first step, meant ending segre-
gation. The desire for inclusion into the broader society created ambivalence re-
garding ethnic identity for many of the "Mexican American generation" and
beyond. Among the fine articles in the section on the rise of the Mexican Ameri-
can middle class is that by Guadalupe San Miguel, which discusses this ambiva-
lence and the fact that the desire to assimilate meant the need for equal
educational opportunities to successfully do it. That fact led to greater efforts to
end segregated schooling in Texas. But, as San Miguel points out, segregation in
Texas was symptomatic of a larger social inequality in America that needed to be
addressed. That conclusion provides the transition into the next set of essays dis-
cussing the Mexican American effort to gain equality and the rise of "Chicanismo
and its Aftermath."
The final section covers the time period 1965-2ooo and contains six excellent
essays, three revolving around women. Richard Garcia's treatment of Dolores
Huerta is an inspiring example of one person's actions shattering limiting stereo-
types. The piece by Alma Garcia shows how the rise of Chicana feminist discourse
can be traced back to women's experiences with sexism not only in the larger so-
ciety, but within the Chicano movement itself, even as it struggled to end racial
oppression, gain political power, and promote cultural regeneration. The transi-
tion from that discussion to Mary Pardo's essay on the "Mothers of East Los An-
geles" moves nicely from theory and discourse into practice and shows how
women's activism, even if partly exercised in the form of usually constraining tra-
ditional gender roles, can help an entire ethnic community.
There are many other quality pieces in this collection covering a wide range of
topics. This includes an introduction that attempts to situate the field of Mexican
American history within the larger context of the Chicano movement that helped
bring it into being. It is an important point to make and one that can provide
Mexican American students in particular a clear connection to the past as they
recognize that they are the beneficiaries of the efforts of a previous generation
and that they too can take an active role in shaping the future. That point is some-
what muted though by the digression into the subcategories within the field and
the categorizing of scholars, many of who's work does not even appear in the7o3
2002
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002, periodical, 2002; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101222/m1/759/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.